Heaven 17 - "Designing Heaven (Giorgio Moroder's Subterranean 12")" Trancespotting II Song released in 1996. Compilation released in 1998. House / Garage House
UK synthpop and new wave group Heaven 17 had not released an album since 1988, but in '96 they were back with Bigger Than America, which came with a single called "Designing Heaven" that got packed with a bunch of modern dance remixes for its 12-inch and maxi-CD issues. One of those remixes was credited to none other than Italian disco godfather Giorgio Moroder, who teams up here with his own mentee, American producer-remixer-DJ Chris Cox, right before Chris would start releasing music with Barry Harris as the prolific remix duo of Thunderpuss. By the turn of the millennium, Thunderpuss would rule both the Billboard Dance chart and US contemporary hit radio with their big, gay, flashy, and tribal treatments of some of dance and pop's biggest divas at the time—their memorable 1999 remix of Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right but It's Okay" was a massive hit, particularly, that far outshined the original.
Chris' early work had gained the attention of Giorgio, and Giorgio put him to work in his studio in Los Angeles. Then in '95, they officially started releasing music together, with a remix of Industrial rock band KMFDM's "Juke-Joint Jezebel" that landed on the Mortal Kombat movie soundtrack, as well as a deeply embarrassing piece of J-pop on which Chris rapped for a female trio called Amazons. The following year, though, Giorgio and Chris were making house music, and this Heaven 17 remix of theirs ended up flying under the radar, despite it being a quality gay garage groove with alternating periods of bouncy and splotchy acid and blissfully vintage piano house. Then the following year, Thunderpuss would make their official debut.
So, an underappreciated dance track from the mid-90s that served as something of a bridging point toward Chris Cox and Barry Harris' formation of Thunderpuss. And none of it probably would've happened had Giorgio Moroder not taken Chris under his own wing. Kind of neat to think of how Giorgio had been such a force in the 70s and 80s, and now in the 90s, his own legacy was being extended through the likes of Chris Cox and Thunderpuss, who were becoming an immensely successful commercial force of their own. Bit of a torch-passing thing going on there that definitely feels under-discussed, as Chris would go on to amass an astounding 64 Billboard Dance chart-topping records in total throughout his career that is still very much active 🤯.
